NUMBER OF VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS OF ARMENIA TO ADD BY 10 IN FUTURE

Noyan Tapan
Mar 09 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. 10 more new vocational schools will
open in different marzes of Armenia soon. At present 28 thousand
pupils study at 81 middle professional educational institutions of
the country, and 4 thousand pupils at 27 vocational schools. The
education lasts for three years in vocational schools, connected
with the level of the comprehensive education, and in the middle
professional school this lasts for two years. As Samvel Pipoyan, the
Middle Professional Education Department Chief of the RA Ministry
of Education and Science informed in the interview with the Noyan
Tapan correspondent, besides the state assistance, international
organizations acting in Armenia: TACIS and GTZ (German Technical
Cooperation), also support development and spreading of the sphere
of middle professional education. According to the Department Chief,
this is already the 5th year that the GTZ implements interregional
cooperation in the middle professional sphere. The first stage of
the program envisages preparation of the rulling staff, the second
one envisages re-training of lecturers. According to S.Pipoyan, the
pedagogical staff of this sphere of Armenia hasn’t been re-trained
already for 15 years. The TACIS organization implements the 3 mln euros
program “Assistance to Development of Professional System of Armenia”
which has three components: study and analysis of the job market,
re-training the lecturers, re-armament of the material-technical
basis. According to S.Pipoyan, at present the sphere of the middle
professional education has two most important and primary problems:
to solve the issue of giving at least one free professional education
to children of families of socially vulnerable strata and the issue of
cooperation of businessmen and the middle professional educational
sphere. According to him, a claim for preparing specialists was
presented up to this day by the “HayRusgazard” company, with the demand
of 100 specialists. According to S,Pipoyan, today employers in Armenia
aren’t sure in continuation of their business and consequently they
can’t work out long-lasting programs as well as to prepare future
specialists.